Article courtesy of Robbie Fox, ESPN and Barstool Sports
ESPN-Smith said in an interview with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani on Monday that he woke up just after 4 a.m. local time Sunday to a stranger in his Omaha-area home. The UFC light heavyweight said he tried to subdue Haberman for more than five minutes while waiting for the police to arrive.
Haberman did not steal anything, Smith said, and it was unclear why he was in the house. Smith and his family — he lives with his wife, mother-in-law and three daughters — were not injured. Smith described the incident as “terrifying” and called it “one of the toughest fights” he has ever had.
Smith said his wife woke him up and told him there was a man in the house. Smith said he could hear a “man’s voice screaming at the top of his lungs.” Smith left the bedroom, turned a corner and saw Haberman in a computer room.
Smith said Haberman walked toward him and it seemed like he was trying to scare him. Smith was concerned the man had a weapon. Smith said he tried to take him down and the two began fighting.
“I didn’t know what he had,” Smith said. “Typically people don’t break into your house in the middle of the night for any good reasons. I’m expecting that I’m gonna hear a gunshot or he’s gonna stab me. Like he’s got something. I figure I’ve got about two minutes before whatever he’s got takes me out.”
Smith said his main goal was to protect his family. His wife gathered the children and took them to a bedroom and closed the door. Smith fights at 205 pounds and walks around heavier than that. Somehow, he said, this man who weighed around 170 pounds was still coming at him, an elite UFC fighter, for minutes.
“No normal human is able to fight like that,” Smith said. “I’m by no means the baddest dude on the planet. But he’s a regular Joe and I had a hard time dealing with him. And he took everything that I gave him — every punch, every knee, every elbow. He took every single one of them and kept fighting me.”
At one point, Smith said, his mother-in-law brought him a kitchen knife, which he held to Haberman, who continued to fight him, Smith said.
When the police arrived, officers were able to subdue Haberman, Smith said. He said there was blood all over the computer room and Haberman was cut up and had swelling on his face.
According to Smith, Haberman told him, “Hey man, I’m sorry” as he walked by after things calmed down.
Smith said he experienced a wide range of emotions afterward, including anger and then fear that someone had targeted him. He no longer thinks that’s the case, but there is confusion about what the man wanted. Smith said his neighbors had video footage of Haberman trying to enter their homes, and he succeeded in entering another home before being scared away.
He entered Smith’s home through an open garage door.
“I’m not lying when I said it was one of the toughest fights I’ve had in my whole life,” Smith said. “I went into that fight ready to die. Nobody smart breaks into a house in the middle of the night unarmed. … When they break in at night, it’s to hurt people.”
Well HOOOOOOLLLLLLYYYYYY SHIT! This story is absolutely wild from start to finish.
Basically, it sounds like some lunatic on drugs was trying to break into a bunch of houses on one block – he succeeded in breaking into one, got scared away by the owner – and then he got into the home of UFC Light Heavyweight Anthony “Lionheart” Smith through an open garage door. Once he got in there, he started screaming nonsense from “deep within” himself, as loud as he could, until Smith went into the room he was in and started to fight him.
Narrator: It was at this moment that this crazed psycho realized that he had wandered into the wrong house.
Once they began fighting, Smith, who is a fuckin legit Light Heavyweight contender (fights at 205lb, probably walk around closer to 225lb), said this little guy (170lb) took every shot he had to throw at him. Every punch, elbow, knee – everything. Smith, who has fought Jon Jones before, said it was one of the toughest fights he’s ever had in his entire life, and even feared he was being targeted for a bit because of it! He’s since come to the realization that it probably wasn’t targeting, but still – one of the toughest fights he’s ever had in his entire life!
I’m sure the adrenaline and the fear of the unknown play as big a factor in that as any, but it’s still very interesting for me to hear an elite fighter say that after a home invasion brawl with an unarmed high lunatic. Who knows what kinda hyperzombie bath salts homeboy coulda been on. Smith said the guy also claimed he was armed and had others in the house as they were fighting too. Terrifying.
Eventually, the police arrived to help Anthony Smith subdue the guy, and the intruder just apologized when it was all said and done. Straight up hit Lionheart with a, “Hey man, I’m sorry”, as he got walked on outta by police.
More than anything, I’m glad Smith and his entire family made it outta this thing alright. What a fucking horrible and scarring thing to have happen to such a great guy and his loved ones right now. Thank god he had a lifetime of training for that very moment.
